Fred Phelps

The Rev. Fred Phelps Sr., the fiery founder of a small Topeka church who drew international condemnation for hate-filled protests blamed almost everything--including the deaths of AIDS victims and U.S. soldiers--on America's tolerance for gay people, has died. He was 84.

Daughter Margie Phelps told The Associated Press that Fred Phelps died shortly after midnight Thursday. She didn't provide the cause of death or the condition that recently put him in hospice care.

Family members of 84-year-old Westboro Baptist Church founder Fred Phelps have confirmed that he's in hospice care in Topeka and may be near death.

The group is known for funeral protests that have created a lot of anger, but equality groups are asking for a different response to Phelp's condition.

Stephanie Mott is with the Kansas Statewide Transgender Education Project, or K-STEP. She's a transgender woman. She has traveled the nation giving presentations on LGBT issues and often hears the same question over and over.

Megan Phelps-Roper and her sister, Grace Phelps-Roper--granddaughters of Fred Phelps--have left the Westboro Baptist Church and are apologizing for their past behavior.

Megan Phelps-Roper and her sister, Grace Phelps-Roper, left the controversial Topeka church back in November. Westboro Baptist Church has gained national attention for, among other things, picketing the funerals of gay people and of soldiers.

Whenever I feel a little bit down about this old world of ours, about the direction things seem to be going in, I turn my thoughts to Fred Phelps and, by golly, I see the beautiful side of life again. His skeletal facial features are hardened by decades of wallowing in the odious, putrid mud of hate and self-loathing. Yet that face always serves as a reminder to me of our society’s amazing ability to resist the pull to meet violence with violence.